Pick Up Your Burden And Stand Before God
by Alex Foster
Summary: Fifty sentences about Claire Bennet written for the 1character 50 prompt challenge. Contains various pairings including het, gen, and slash. Mostly AU.


Title: Pick Up Your Burden And Stand Before God

Author: Alex Foster

Category: General, Het, Slash, Crossover

Character/Pairings: Claire, Claire/Peter, Claire/Adam, Claire/Elle, Claire/Gretchen, Claire/Daphne, Claire/OMC, Claire/OFC, Claire/Talia Winters

Word Count: 1,787

Rating: PG-13

Summary: 50 facts about Claire Bennet

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by NBC. No money is being made and no infringement is intended.

Author's Notes: To paraphrase Buffy, I had a bad month and it only got worse. Details aren't really important but I was really missing fandom so I took on the 1character challenge to write one sentence per prompt around one character. Writing this mostly on my phone while at work it took me nearly three weeks - pathetic, I know. Since only one sentence was allowed per prompt abuse of commas, semicolons, and run on sentences are sure to follow. Not written in any sort of chronological order and I do skip around between AUs and included one crossover with Babylon 5 but it isn't as confusing as it sounds. Thank you for reading...

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Life loves the liver of it.  
- Maya Angelou

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...

01. Speak  
"No," Claire Bennet told the dying special, "I don't have to go anywhere; I have all the time in the world."

02. Touch  
Even when she could feel nothing else, Claire could always feel Peter's hand on the small of her back, guiding her.

03. Memory  
When Claire was young, she asked Noah how old grown ups were when their memories started to fade; when she was old enough to have seen the moon orbit away from the Earth, she could still remember everything.

04. Vanilla  
Elle liked it rough and harsh and fast until Claire took her hands one night and said, "Let me show you what it is like without the pain."

05. Chocolate  
She treasured each stuffed bear Noah brought back with him after his business trips and the piece of candy he would occasionally leave hidden with them – it was their own little secret.

06. Ways and Means  
Claire never told them, but when those three kids found her at the end of the twenty second century and ended her self-imposed exile she was secretly glad…if only for the chance to see a new generation save the world.

07. Belief  
On an assignment for Pinehearst, Knox made the mistake of quoting Isaiah 43:2 in Claire's presence and she told him in no uncertain terms she would crucify him if she ever heard him spouting such drivel again.

08. Linger  
Adam Monroe never stops calling her a kid, she never stops calling him a dirty old man, and it never gets old.

09. Luminance  
Claire refused to leave Peter when he lost control of the ability building underneath his skin—and when the nuclear power burned her skin and the brightness tore her retinas she was still with him.

10. Ornament  
At eight years old Claire had her ears pierced; at eighteen she jabbed an earring through the newly closed hole just to see if it would hurt—it didn't.

11. Coup de Foudre  
She felt completely and utterly safe in Peter's presence and found only weak imitations in the arms of her other lovers.

12. Archway  
The night of her reveal to the world, in the rush of aftermath, Claire spotted Noah standing underneath one of the archways in the Petrelli mansion, wiping tears from his eyes, and for the first time began to realize what she'd done.

13. Fate  
A part of her always knew it would happen and no matter how the timeline was changed or relived they always had this appointment—unable to stop it, Claire squeezed her eyes shut as Sylar began to cut.

14. Pulse  
This was being a human for the first time in her life, this was being a special for the first time in her life, and Claire felt it all in the sweaty skin and rapidly beating pulse point underneath her kiss—and the electric current that kissed back.

15. Envelope  
In her desk at Pinehearst, in a locked drawer, sat a letter written to her by her father; Claire never opened it or told anyone about it but didn't know why.

16. Cold  
The bolts of antimatter sliced through her and most of the building behind her leaving an icy vacuum behind; high overhead she saw Sylar fly in the direction of the attack and moments later half of the city imploded as the villain died and swallowed all traces of Sylar as well.

17. Need  
Claire wanted Gretchen to know how she felt in return, even when the words wouldn't come; Claire wanted Gretchen to kiss her again, even when she didn't know how to ask; Claire needed Gretchen's acceptance of what she was that came freely and without judgement.

18. Drunk  
When she is nearly forty years old, René gives her a gift and blocks her ability long enough for her to get drunk for the first and only time in her life.

19. Mask  
Claire raises her gun to Peter's chest says, "I can't believe I loved you." and her mask never slips.

20. Rose  
When Pinehearst raids an enclave of rogue specials they find scribbled on a wall the words, "Roses are red, violets are blue, and you are dead if Claire Bennet finds you!" and Knox looks ready to soil himself when Claire just laughs and laughs.

21. Two  
In her long life Claire Bennet befriended two time travelers; Hiro jumped forward and looked at her with caution while James traveled backward and looked at her with sadness.

22. Fresh  
One of the special children once asked what it felt like to have her power, to be as old as she was, and Claire told her it was like that feeling that came after a cool and cleansing rainfall—the kid believed the lie.

23. Bribe  
"Go with them," Claire told the young boy clinging to her, "and learn how to use your ability…And when you are ready I'll help you find the people that killed your family."

24. Error  
Some abilities were best left underdeveloped she learned the hard way—and after seeing what he did to that house full of people, Claire kept that old promise and found the hunters that once tried to kill him…and helped them complete their mission.

25. Appetite  
James pops her back to Paris a few years before the labor riots and she introduces him to the wonders of French cuisine and tries unsuccessfully to teach him the language.

26. Refrain  
After a couple of hundred years of living, Claire has learned that doing nothing while the world fights is occasionally better than throwing herself body and ability into the fray.

27. Family  
She loved them all, descendants from the Petrelli and Bennet families, over the years even as her ability prevented her from having any of her own

28. Grieve  
Claire Bennet had dozens of husbands, dozens of wives, and more lovers than her outdated twenty first century morality could stand; she buried them all and grieved each one.

29. Vapor  
During the summer in Odessa, when it was hot and the humidity felt like a wet blanket on their skin, Claire and Zach would watch clouds and talk about what they were going to do after college—Claire could never make up her mind and would say she'd have to live long enough to do everything.

30. Tea  
Gabriel fixes Claire mint tea as Noah Gray tugs at her dark hair; the boy does not yet understand she is an agent of Pinehearst and what that means for him.

31. Medicine  
Claire let the syringe fall to the ground as her ability began working its magic against the virus killing the special at her feet.

32. Moth  
Half in jest, Claire once compared sleeping with Daphne to encountering a moth: both were light, wispy, and were normally gone by morning.

33. Perfect  
Deep down she secretly hated it when her lovers inevitably called her perfect and marveled at her lack of birthmarks or scars.

34. Rope  
She lunged, hitting the rocky ground with force, and caught the end of the rope before it went over the edge; it snapped taut and sliced through her skin but she refused to let go, not letting her partner plummet.

35. Wind  
As an agent of Arthur Petrelli, Claire killed all he ordered her to, sweeping through them like an unforgiving wind, until the day Arthur learned you don't contain the wind.

36. Crossroads  
"This is the moment you can change things," James insisted while Hiro remained silent—Claire didn't pause to think it through and just acted.

37. Summer  
After the war it took months for the dust to settle enough to see the sunrise; Claire tipped her head back and smiled at the feel of warm sunlight again.

38. Candy  
Before leaving on her business trip, Claire left an old fashion teddy bear in the bed of her great great great grandniece…and the little piece of candy clutched hidden in its paws.

39. Photograph  
When Simon Petrelli marries, Claire is careful to stay out of the photographs—her memory is already perfect and she'd just as rather live free of any historical footprints.

40. Spoon  
A little before dawn Claire nuzzled against Gretchen's neck, ignoring the sounds beyond the thin dorm room walls of Arlington University waking up, and felt human and normal.

41. Forest  
For a long time, Claire fantasizes about a quaint cabin in the woods of northern California—there is something about being around giant redwoods, thousands of years old, that is comforting.

42. Mirror  
When she first helps Elle it is because she knows they are reflections of each other; when she indoctrinates Elle into the new Company it is because she knows they can both be better.

43. Smoke  
She can almost remember the feeling, as the knife slid through her hand, but then the echo of pain was gone like smoke in the wind.

44. Shine  
She hates returning to Costa Verde to see Gabriel living in her old home; hates the cruel facsimile of family he offers her with a smile; hates there is still love buried in her heart to consider accepting it; hates he named his son after her father; and hates deep in a place beyond reason little Noah's blue eyes that shine with his mother's electric power.

45. Balloon  
She rises quickly through the ranks of several special organizations, becoming field agent and then team leader, and she credits that skill to Nathan and not Noah.

46. Vine  
Somehow she always manages to learn the latest special news and gossip even when she is deep in self-imposed exile and wants to make the world right—she credits that trait to Noah and not Nathan.

47. Butterfly  
On the brink of the third special war, acting on information she wasn't supposed to have, Claire prevents a rogue from escaping to the Mexico Territories; years later she learns that woman was James' mother and by killing her prevented her friend from ever being born.

48. Gloves  
Claire pulled the other woman's gloves off (_aren't you afraid?_), tossed them aside, let skin touch skin (_no you aren't my first telepath_) and pulled her in for a kiss (_show me who you are, Miss Winters_).

49. Venom  
She emptied the syringe of her blood into the villain's IV bag and a look crossed his face that was almost peaceful when he thought he'd finally won and she was going to help him…then his tumors began to rapidly grow.

50. Remain  
Claire Bennet found them huddled in a cave, long after no humans should have survived, with crude artwork detailing their history on the wall and they wanted her to teach them more...so she started at the beginning.

**End**


End file.
